


feeling the vibrations of every decision

by stepsofthepalace



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Kimberly-centric, all the rangers are there but the focus is on Kim, eventual trimberly, starts in childhood and ends shortly after the events of the movie, there is a brief hetero sex scene and i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 12:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10967223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepsofthepalace/pseuds/stepsofthepalace
Summary: Kimberly Hart was an impulsive person, plain and simple.  She was impulsive and reckless, and she hardly ever thought her actions through.  Sometimes deciding things on a whim turned out surprisingly well, but more often than not, it just ended up biting her in the ass.A catalog of impulsive decisions Kimberly has made throughout her life thus far.





	feeling the vibrations of every decision

**Author's Note:**

> So this took me way too long to write, but I hope you guys like it.
> 
> Title is from "Hear the Bells" by Naomi Scott

Kimberly Hart was an impulsive person, plain and simple.  She was impulsive and reckless, and she hardly ever thought her actions through.  Her parents thought that she was acting out.  The school guidance counselor thought that she just needed to get better at self control.  Her therapist (that her mom made her start seeing after the picture incident) thought that it was a side effect of depression.   No matter what the reason actually was, every decision Kimberly made in her life was sparked by impulse.  Sometimes deciding things on a whim turned out surprisingly well, but more often than not, it just ended up biting her in the ass.

________________

When she was five years old, Kimberly was playing with her dolls in the living room while her mom made dinner.  She started to get bored of the storyline she’d been playing out and tried to figure out something else fun to do.  She noticed that the Barbie she was holding had bangs, and Kimberly decided that she wanted bangs too.  Dropping her Barbie on the floor, she dug through her craft bin, pulled out her safety scissors, and ran down to the hallway bathroom.  She stepped up onto her footstool so she could see the mirror, pulled a chunk of hair to the front, and started to snip.  It was difficult to cut with safety scissors, but Kimberly kept going anyway, cutting off small chunks at a time.  

“Kimmy sweetie, where did you go?” She heard her mom call from the other room.  Her eyes widened as she realized that her mom would probably _not_ be happy that she did this without asking.  Kimberly hurriedly cleaned up the mess of dark hair that had fallen into the sink and on the floor before the bathroom door opened.  “Oh my god! Kimberly, what have you done to your hair?”

“I wanted bangs…” Kimberly mumbled in response.  It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she wasn’t so sure.  The resulting cut was choppy and uneven–it didn’t look anything like the perfectly styled bangs on her Barbie doll–and now her mom was mad at her.  Kimberly started to get teary eyed as she waited to be put in time-out or get her toys taken away.

Her mom sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “You can’t just cut your own hair Kimberly,” she said sternly, “If you wanted bangs, you should have waited for your next haircut.” A few tears dripped down Kimberly’s cheeks and her mom’s face softened.  She knelt down and grabbed Kimberly’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“I’m sorry.” Kimberly sniffled.  

“It’s okay sweetie, we’ll get it fixed tomorrow. But please don’t _ever_ try to cut your own hair again. Promise?”

“I promise.”

The next morning, Kimberly’s mom took her on an emergency run to the hair salon to fix up her bangs.  In order to get them even, the hairdresser had to cut them quite a bit shorter than Kimberly wanted, and she thought they looked stupid.  It took a whole month for them to grow out to the length she wanted, and when they finally did she decided she didn’t actually like having bangs.  She grew them out as soon as possible.

_______________

When Kimberly was seven years old, she went with her parents to the park.  She was eager to head to the playground at the other end, but ended up being forced to wait.  Her parents had run into some neighbors and stopped to chat for a while.  They tried to involve Kimberly in the conversation, but she didn’t really want to talk to them (she thought adults were _super_ boring) and quickly got antsy.  She started to look around for things to do when she noticed what looked like the _perfect_ climbing tree a little bit further down the path and quietly slipped away from her parents.  There was a low enough branch that she was able to pull herself right up and begin her climb.   A few branches up, she started to hear her name being called.

“Kimberly, what are you doing? Get down from there!” her mom called after her.  Kimberly kept going.

“Kimberly Ann Hart, you get down here this instant!” her dad yelled. She ignored him and reached for the next branch.  Only she misjudged the distance, her foot slipping as she lost her grip, and she tumbled down to the ground, landing hard.  She heard a snap and an intense pain shot up her arm.  Kimberly cried out, her parents rushing to her side in an instant.  Her mom helped her sit up and gently grabbed her arm.  Kimberly yelped as the movement caused another shock of pain.  Tears rushed down her cheeks as her mom examined her arm, careful not to move it too much.  Something was definitely wrong, it wasn’t supposed to bend that way and Kimberly had never been in so much pain in her life.

“I think it’s broken,” her mom said, “We have to go to the emergency room.” Kimberly’s dad scooped her up, careful to avoid putting pressure on her injured arm, and carried her to the car.  Her mom sat in the backseat with her and held her hand as she cried the whole way to the hospital.

Kimberly got a pink cast and her parents took her for ice cream afterwards to make her feel better.  When they got home though, Kimberly was sat down in the living room and given a harsh lecture on the importance of “thinking before you act” and how she was lucky because “it could have turned out much worse”.  Kimberly really should have paid closer attention to that lecture.

_______________

In third grade, Kimberly started taking karate.  She and her dad had watched the _The Karate Kid_ when it was on TV, and Kimberly decided that she wanted to be like Daniel.  It was fun for the first couple of weeks, but there was one kid in her class who she really didn’t like.  Liam Andrews was a mean kid and a bit of a bully.  Kimberly hated bullies.  One class, he started picking on one of the smaller kids while their Sensei went to grab something from the other room.

“Stop it!” the kid whined.

“What are you gonna do,” Liam taunted, pushing him down onto the mat, “You gonna hit me?” Without thinking about it, Kimberly stomped up to him.  Liam was a good couple inches taller than her, but she didn’t care.

“Hey!” She shoved his arm to get his attention. “Pick on someone your own size!” He started to laugh at her, but he wasn’t laughing for long.  She threw a punch–just like Sensei had taught them–right at his jaw.  The hit landed perfectly and Liam started to cry.  Kimberly was pretty proud of herself for a second, until she noticed Sensei walking back into the room.

“What happened here?” Sensei asked sternly.

“Sensei, she punched me!” Liam pointed at her accusingly, cupping his jaw with his other hand.

Kimberly’s was going to argue that it was Liam’s fault for picking on people, but the words died in her throat when she caught the steely gaze of her instructor.  She was forced to sit out for the rest of class, and when her mom came to come pick her up afterwards, Sensei informed her of what had happened.  Her parents decided that karate had proven too violent and pulled her out.  A few weeks later, they decided to put her in gymnastics instead.

_______________

In the last week of fifth grade, Kimberly was walking down the hallway to the bathroom when a poster caught her eye.  It was announcing cheerleading tryouts that day after school for any fifth graders interested in joining the middle school cheer team.  Kimberly hadn’t ever really thought about cheerleading, but why not?  It looked fun, and she didn’t really have anything to do after school that day anyway.  Instead of taking the bus home, Kimberly used her ‘for emergencies’ cellphone to call her mom and tell her that she was going to tryouts.  Her mom seemed somewhat frustrated that Kimberly hadn’t told her about it before, but promised that she’d be there afterwards to pick her up.

When she got to the gym, there were about twenty other girls sitting in the bleachers.  Kimberly quickly signed in and looked around the room for a place to sit, noticing an empty spot next to two girls she recognized from her gymnastics class.  She’d never really talked to them, but they seemed nice enough.

“Hi, you’re Amanda, right?” Kimberly asked as she approached, “And Harper?” The two nodded. “Can I sit here?”

“Sure,” Amanda answered, quirking an eyebrow, “Kimberly, right?” Kimberly nodded as she sat down, easily inserting herself into Amanda and Harper’s conversation.

A few minutes later, the coach blew her whistle to get their attention.  She launched into a short speech about how many people they were accepting, when practices would be, and the responsibilities of being on the team.  The tryouts went in order of the sign up sheet, so Kimberly ended up going last.  When it finally came to her turn, Kimberly knew she should probably be nervous, but she hadn’t really put much stock into making the team so she just had fun.  Her gymnastics experience really helped her out, and it ended up being a lot easier than she had expected.

A few days later, after the sixth and seventh graders had their tryouts, Kimberly found out she’d made the team.  So had Amanda and Harper.  They were the only incoming sixth graders on the squad, so that summer at cheer camp, the three quickly became nearly inseparable.  

________________

In seventh grade, Kimberly was at Harper’s house for her thirteenth birthday party.  Harper’s parents had let the kids have the basement to themselves, and they, of course, immediately started to play truth or dare.  It was a co-ed party, which had become a novelty by the time they’d hit middle school, so they wanted to take full advantage of it.  The first few rounds were fairly innocent, and most of the kids went for truth, getting questions like “who do you have a crush on” and “what’s your biggest fear”.  The dares were also pretty tame–attempt to breakdance for 30 seconds, eat a spoonful of mayonnaise, put an ice cube down you pants.  After Amanda’s turn (where she picked dare and was made to drink a gross concoction of beverages from the snack table), she turned to Kimberly.

“Truth or Dare?”

“Dare.” Kimberly wasn’t afraid of a challenge.

“Hmm…” Amanda pretended to ponder for a moment, stroking her chin as if in deep thought. “I dare you… to kiss Aaron.”

The other kids all ‘oohed’ at the dare, but Kimberly just shrugged and walked over to where Aaron sat on the other side of the circle.  She knelt down, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and tugged him forward.  His lips were chapped and his nose squashed uncomfortably against hers.  Overall it wasn’t awful, but Kimberly was glad when it was over.  It certainly wasn’t what she had expected from a first kiss, but it was okay.  Amanda knew that Kimberly hadn’t kissed anyone before though, so she couldn’t help but be curious and slightly frustrated at the chosen dare.

Kimberly and Amanda were invited to stay the night after everyone else left, and she decided to take the opportunity to confront Amanda about what happened during the game.

Amanda rolled her eyes, “Kimmy relax, I did you a favor. Besides, you told me you thought Aaron was cute.”

Kimberly just huffed in response.  She hadn’t really cared _that_ much about how her first kiss would happen, but she had kind of expected it would be a bit more special or _something_.

________________

In ninth grade, Kimberly was hanging out with Amanda and Harper by her locker before homeroom talking about Amanda’s new boyfriend.  She had started dating Kyle about a week prior, and was still at the point where she was _constantly_ gushing about him to Harper and Kimberly (bragging mostly).  Kimberly couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous that Amanda was already so far ahead of her in the dating game, and decided she needed to get a boyfriend too.  She’d been on a few dates before, but most of them were silly eighth grade dates chaperoned by parents.  Kimberly was old enough now to get an actual _serious_ boyfriend.  She glanced down the hall as Amanda chattered on and noticed Ty Fleming standing by his locker.  Kimberly had been harboring a small crush on him since eighth grade, though she’d only talked to him a few times before.  He was one of the best freshman players on the football team, second only to Jason Scott, and he was really cute with his floppy brown hair and a nice smile.  When Amanda and Harper left to go to homeroom, Kimberly hung back and walked over to join Ty by his locker.

“Hey Ty,” she said.

“Oh, hey Kimberly, what’s up?” he looked slightly confused by her sudden attention.

“I was wondering... if you’d like to see a movie this weekend?” Ty’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“Like a…” He cleared his throat, “Like a date?”

“Yeah,” Kimberly smiled at him, leaning against the locker next to his, “Like a date.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Ty shut his locker and turned fully towards her, “That’d be cool.”

“Great! How’s Saturday?”

Ty nodded, “Saturday’s good.”

“Good.” Kimberly started to leave.  
“Wait, what movie did you want to see?” Ty asked before she could get too far.

Kimberly shrugged, “Whatever you wanna see is fine.”

That Saturday, Kimberly’s parents drove the two to the movie theater (she had tried to convince them to let her walk, but they didn’t agree).  During the movie, she let him wrap his arm around her as she leaned into his shoulder.  She quickly grew bored of the plot–seeing as it was mostly just fights and explosions–so she decided to lean over and place a hand on his cheek, turning his head towards her.  He looked confused for a second before she leaned in and kissed him.  Kimberly found it considerably more entertaining than the movie.

________________

The summer before tenth grade Kimberly got bored one day when Amanda and Harper were busy, and decided to go for a hike on the trail behind her house.  Her dad had taken her for hikes when she was a kid, and she liked to walk them sometimes when she was feeling restless.  To try something new, she decided to take a different path than usual, and the new path was actually really nice.  Only problem was, about an hour into her hike, she realized that she had lost track of how many turns she had made.  She was definitely a bit lost.  Rather than admit defeat though, Kimberly just kept walking.  When the sun started setting, she began to get a bit worried.  She considered turning around and retracing her steps, but thought that, since she was already lost, it probably wouldn’t hurt to keep going for just a little bit longer.

Suddenly, just as she was about to give in and attempt to backtrack down the mountain, Kimberly stumbled upon a pool of water at the base of a small cliff.  It was beautiful, and the water looked so refreshing after her long hike.  She wasn’t wearing a bathing suit, but she also didn’t particularly care, stripping down to her underwear and jumping in anyway.  It was a lot colder than she expected, but it didn’t bother her.  Her swim actually turned out to be really relaxing, and Kimberly decided she would definitely have to come back soon.  

By the time she got out of the water, the sun had fully set and stars had begun to appear in the sky.  Kimberly struggled to figure out her way home, just following trails down until she finally hit something familiar.  As she walked in the door, her mom stormed into the entryway.  

“Kimberly Ann Hart, do you have any idea what time it is? Why weren’t you answering your phone?” Shoot, she’d forgotten to take her phone with her.  Kimberly realized suddenly how lucky she was that she had actually managed to find her way back after getting lost.  The trails weren’t super dangerous, but she could have been stuck out there for quite a bit longer.

“Sorry, I must have left it in my room.” Her mom sighed as she took in Kimberly’s appearance, clothes still dripping from her swim.

“And _why_ are you soaking wet?”

“I, um…” Kimberly tried to think of an excuse, knowing her mom would not be too keen to know she was swimming in a dirty watering hole in the middle of the woods.  Luckily her mom cut her off.

“Never mind, I’m sure I don’t want to know, just go put on some dry clothes. Did you at least have any dinner?”

On her subsequent trips to her new spot, Kimberly made sure to bring a bag with a towel and a change of clothes.  She also later learned to start sneaking in and out of her room through her window when she went, especially if she wanted to go at night, knowing that her parents were getting a bit suspicious about her increasingly frequent hikes.

________________

In her Junior year, Kimberly attended a party after the Homecoming game with Ty and her friends.  The Tigers had won, and everyone was celebrating.  Ty was busy playing beer pong in the dining room, so Kimberly sat and chatted with Amanda and Harper on the living room couch.  Amanda was bragging about her boyfriend _again_ , this time about how good he was in bed.  They had apparently just ‘done the deed’ a few days earlier, and Amanda was gloating, apparently _super_ glad to no longer be a virgin.

“You girls should really get on that.” She told them condescendingly, “Your boyfriends aren’t gonna wait forever, you know.”

Maybe Amanda was right.  Kimberly and Ty had talked briefly about it before–or at least, they had gotten close a few times, so it had sort of come up.  Ty was definitely ready and willing, but Kimberly had been a bit apprehensive about it, and it showed.  He hadn’t been pushy about it, and Kimberly was definitely grateful for that, but she decided that she didn’t really know why she’d been so intent on putting it off.  Her mom had said you should only do it with someone you love, and she was _pretty_ sure she loved Ty.  So, now was as good a time as any, right?

Kimberly got off the couch and went to go find Ty.  He was still in the dining room by the beer pong table, though he was no longer playing, just watching from the sidelines with his buddies.  Kimberly walked up and grabbed his arm, tugging him down to whisper in his ear.

“Hey, you wanna go talk somewhere _private_?” He nodded quickly, following her as they weaved their way through the crowd and headed upstairs.

They went into the nearest open bedroom, locking the door behind them.  Kimberly’s heart was pounding in her ears, but she ignored it and pushed Ty down on the bed.  She had decided to do this, and she wasn’t going to wimp out just because of stupid nerves.  She straddled him and pulled off her shirt, hoping that it would distract Ty enough so he wouldn’t notice her fading confidence.  It worked, and he rolled them over so he was on top, pushing her skirt up so it was bunched around her waist.  She tensed slightly, but kissed Ty to distract herself.  He pulled down her underwear, followed shortly by his own pants and boxers.  

It started out awkward and fumbling, neither of them really knowing what they were doing, and then quickly turned painful.  Kimberly hid her face in Ty’s shoulder, and grit her teeth through the discomfort.  Ty didn’t end up lasting very long, and Kimberly faked it so that he didn’t feel bad.  He rolled off of her and pulled his pants back on, giving her a quick kiss before heading back out to rejoin the party.  

Once he was gone, Kimberly tugged back on her shirt and underwear before sitting back down on the bed, staring blankly at the wall.  A single tear dripped down her cheek, though she wasn’t quite sure why.  She wasn’t necessarily upset, just a bit rattled.  It hadn’t been _nearly_ as ‘life-changing’ as Amanda had made it out to be (and much more uncomfortable than she had been led to expect), and Kimberly wondered if maybe that was her own fault.  Maybe she’d done something wrong?  She sat there for a few more minutes before shaking herself off and heading back downstairs.  She was still slightly dazed, and so headed straight for the booze table.  It wasn’t a particularly healthy idea, but she thought maybe a drink or two would make her feel better.  Passing up the beer, Kimberly went straight for the bottle of vodka that people were using for mixed drinks, pouring about three shots worth into a cup and drinking it straight.  She didn’t usually drink this much this quickly, but she was usually pretty happy when she was tipsy and wanted to get to that point as fast as possible.  She slammed down the cup after she finished, wincing at the burn in her throat, and filled her cup up with beer to chase it down.  After a few minutes, the alcohol started to hit her, and Kimberly definitely felt a bit better.  She refilled her drink again, planning to maintain this happy buzz for the whole night if possible.

When Kimberly woke up the next morning, she had the worst headache and her stomach felt like it was caving in on itself.  Sunlight was streaming in through her curtains, and Kimberly shrunk away from it, tucking her head under her covers.  She struggled to figure out how she had gotten back to her room last night.  Grabbing her phone off the nightstand, her question was answered when she saw a text from Harper.

**_Harper (1:34 AM)_ **

             hope ur hangovers not 2 bad

             u were p out of it when we dropped u off

Kimberly was grateful that her friends had been looking out for her, and was about to send Harper a short ‘thank you’ message when she felt a huge wave of nausea wash over her.  She scrambled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, making it just in time to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet.  When she stopped heaving and her stomach finally seemed empty, Kimberly flushed the toilet but stayed sat on the bathroom floor.  Her brain felt like it was pounding against her skull as she laid her head on the toilet seat, too exhausted to move it any further.  The cool porcelain actually felt kind of nice pressed against her cheek.  Eventually Kimberly got enough strength to get up, hopping immediately into the shower to wash off the grime of the previous night.

Ty was definitely more interested than Kimberly in maintaining their new sexual relationship, but Kimberly went along with it to make him happy.  After that first time, she never really initiated, but she did steadily begin to find it more pleasurable.  She still never got off though, and would always end up having to fake it and finish herself off later.  It was enjoyable enough anyway, but not as ‘magical’ or ‘mind-blowing’ as everyone always made it seem.

________________

Of all the rash decisions Kimberly had made in her life, nothing was worse than the beginning of Senior year.  

Over the summer, Amanda had sent her and Harper an intimate photo for ‘approval’.  It wasn’t exactly a ‘nude’ per se, but it left very little to the imagination.  Kimberly got incredibly flustered upon receiving the text and dropped her phone by accident, her cheeks flushing.  She shook her head to get rid of the weird feelings that had started cropping up and picked back up the phone.  She quickly sent a response and tried not to think any more of it, content to pretend like it had never happened.

But then, in the first few weeks of school, Kimberly noticed Ty and Amanda getting particularly _close_ .  She saw them together a lot more often than usual–Amanda clearly flirting with Ty by his locker, dancing together at the start of year party, sitting next to each other at lunch (and basically ignoring Kimberly).  Harper even let it slip that the two had spent a lot of time together over the summer while Kimberly and her parents were in Ahmedabad visiting family.  Suffice it to say, Kimberly wasn’t particularly surprised when Ty broke up with her, but she was _pissed._  He had asked to talk to her one Monday after school and dumped it on her before she even knew what was coming.

“You’re _breaking up_ with me?” Kimberly asked, arms crossed defensively in front of her.

“I’m sorry, but I just feel like we’ve been growing apart lately.” Ty was speaking softly, trying not to draw too much attention from the stragglers still left in the hallway.  Kimberly didn’t give a fuck and all but shouted her response.

“That’s bullshit!”

“Kimberly–”

“This is because of Amanda, isn’t it?” Ty didn’t respond.  Kimberly narrowed her eyes and asked again, “ _Isn’t_ it?”  Ty just averted her gaze.  

She stormed off and drove home in a fury, angry tears burning the corners of her eyes.  How could Amanda do this to her?  Kimberly had been such a good friend to her, even amidst her constant verbal teardowns and backhanded compliments.  She’d lent Amanda half her wardrobe, let her cheat off her tests, helped her with cheer moves she struggled with.  Hell, she’d even helped critique her fucking nudes!  Kimberly slammed on the breaks. That was it!  She whipped out her phone, quickly found the photo in the group chat, and sent it off to Ty, adding a caption asking if Amanda was really the kind of girl he wanted to bring home to his mom.  She felt a sick sense of pleasure from sending the text, though it didn’t stop her from bristling with anger for the rest of the night.

***

The next morning when Kimberly arrived at school, Harper caught up with her almost immediately as she walked through the front doors.

“Kim hey, there you are! Did something happen with Ty? He’s been spreading shit about you all morning.”  Kimberly clenched her fist around the strap of her bag.

“He broke up with me yesterday.”

“Wait,” Harper looked confused, “ _He_ broke up with _you_ ? That doesn’t make sense. Michele told me he’s been telling people that you’re the ‘meanest person he’s ever met’.” Harper added air quotes for effect, “I assumed _you_ broke it off!”  Kimberly didn’t give her an answer, instead making a beeline directly for Ty’s locker.  She noticed Amanda with him (of fucking _course_ ), and the two glared at her silently as she approached.

“What do you want?” Ty asked.

“Heard you’ve been saying shit about me.” Kimberly challenged, fists clenched tight at her sides.

“Well yeah, ‘cause you’re a total _bitch_.” Kimberly didn’t let him continue before she decked him right in the mouth.  When he pulled his hands away from his bleeding lip, it became apparent that one of his teeth had been knocked clean out.  

“Alright, break it up!” Mr. Hess, Kimberly’s English teacher, broke through the small crowd that had gathered. “Amanda, please take Tyler to the nurse’s office. Kimberly, come with me.”

Kimberly crossed her arms tightly and followed Mr. Hess down the hall to the Dean’s office, plopping down in the chair outside the door.  Mr. Hess had gone in to explain what had happened, and when he left to get back to his classroom, Kimberly was told to wait outside until she was called in.  Her cheerleading coach, Ms. Price, walked in a few minutes later, giving her a disapproving look as she passed.  A few more minutes went by and Kimberly started to get antsy.  She started considering pulling out her phone when Ty came in, with an ice pack and a ziploc bag holding his bloody tooth, and sat next to her.  Kimberly stared straight ahead, refusing to look at him.  More time passed until finally, Mr. Detmer opened the door and told them to come in.  He sat behind his desk and motioned for them to sit as well.  Ms. Price stood off to the side, looking on with a slight frown.

“Thank you for coming in. Mr. Hess told me what happened in the hallway, but I’d like to hear your sides of the story.” Kimberly stayed silent, avoiding Mr. Detmer’s gaze. “Kimberly,” he probed after a few moments of silence, “You were the one who punched Tyler. Could you please tell me why?”

“He called me a bitch,” Kimberly mumbled, gaze locked firmly on the carpet.

“Is that true Tyler?” Mr. Detmer turned to Ty.

“Well yeah–” Ty responded before being cut off by Ms. Price.

“Well, clearly these two are just having some sort of lover’s spat,” Ms. Price rolled her eyes, “This should be simple enough to handle. I’ll just see myself out.” She made to leave, stopping when Ty chimed back in.

“I only called her that because she freaking sent me her friend’s nudes!” Mr. Detmer and Ms. Price both paused for a second, eyes widening in clear surprise.  Ms. Price stepped back into her original spot near the desk, and Kimberly felt more than saw her disapproving stare.

“Mr. Fleming–” Uh oh, Mr. Detmer only switched to last names when things got serious, “–That is a very serious accusation. Miss Hart–” he turned his attention back to Kimberly, “–Is this true? Did you send Mr. Fleming…” he cleared his throat, “ _Intimate_ photos of your friend?”

“No.” Kimberly lied, crossing her arms tightly in front of her, still refusing to look at Mr. Detmer.

“Yes you did!” Ty exclaimed, “I have the text!”

“Mr. Fleming, could I see the text message please?” Mr. Detmer held out his hand for Ty’s phone.  Ty pulled it out, opened to the text, and handed it over.  Mr. Detmer looked at the message for a few seconds before setting the phone down on the desk. “Miss Hart, it’s quite clear that this picture was sent from you.”

“It wasn’t me!” Kimberly shot back.  She was probably only digging herself into a deeper hole by denying it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to admit it.  It had become clearer to her by the minute just how shitty of a move it had been to send that, but she wasn’t ready to face the repercussions.

“Would you like to tell me then how it ended up in a text from _your_ phone?”

“I don’t know,” she had to think fast, and quickly settled on the first possibility that made any kind of sense, “Maybe he stole it and sent it to himself.”  
“And why would he do that?” Mr. Detmer clearly didn’t believe her, but she just kept going with the lie.

“I dunno, maybe he’s just a creep.”

Mr. Detmer signed in exasperation, “Miss Hart, this is very serious, but it will only be worse if we find out you’re lying. Did you or did you not send this picture?”

“No.” Mr. Detmer took off his glasses and massaged his temples before standing up from the desk.

“I have to go discuss this with Principal Feig. Ms. Price, could you please watch them? Make sure they don’t leave this room.”

The room was deathly silent while he was gone, Ms. Price’s glare keeping both Kimberly and Ty quiet.  Kimberly risked a quick glance at her after a few minutes, immediately regretting it when she caught her icy gaze.  When Mr. Detmer finally returned, he was followed by Amanda, who pulled up a chair on the other side of Ty.

“Amanda’s father will be joining us shortly, but until then, we’re going to try and get to the bottom of what exactly happened here. To start, can someone please explain to me how this photo ended up on Miss Hart’s phone in the first place?” Amanda squirmed in her seat uncomfortably.  After a few seconds of silence, she reluctantly provided the answer Mr. Detmer was looking for.

“It’s just a thing girls do sometimes, okay? You send a pic to your friends to make sure it looks okay. It’s a confidence booster, I guess…”

Mr. Detmer paused a bit before responding, “Okay… Well I can’t say that makes much sense to me, but continuing on. Miss Clark, do you know of any potential reason why Miss Hart would send that picture to Mr. Fleming?”

“No idea.” Amanda sent Kimberly a dirty look.  Mr. Detmer sighed.

The conversation continued for about twenty more minutes, though no more new details ended up being revealed.  The door opened suddenly and Principal Feig’s secretary popped her head in.

“Mr. Clark just arrived. Should I let him in?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you.” Mr. Detmer replied.  The secretary opened the door for Amanda’s dad, closing it behind him to return to her desk.  He walked in and pulled up a chair next to Amanda, clearly confused about what exactly he had been called in for.

As Mr. Detmer explained what happened, Mr. Clark’s face turned grim.  He was shown the picture and text, and turned, shocked and furious, towards Kimberly when he noticed her name at the top of the text chain.  Kimberly shrunk under his gaze and wished with every fiber of her being that she could be anywhere but there.

“She’s not just going to get away with this, is she?” Mr. Clark asked, enraged. “This has got to be illegal or something!”

“Mr. Clark–” Mr. Detmer started.

“No, this is bullshit. What kind of school is this? That girl should be suspended at _least_! What kind of kid does that?” Mr. Clark’s rant went on for a while, Kimberly sinking further into her chair with every word, before Mr. Detmer assured him that Kimberly definitely was not being let off the hook.  As he left, he took Amanda with him, yelling at her that she was in big trouble for taking the picture in the first place, and that they would be talking about it at length when they got home.  Ty was let go a few minutes later, his mom having come to take him to the dentist to put his tooth back.  After he left the room, Kimberly was left alone with Mr. Detmer and Ms. Price.  She was honestly ready to die right then and there.  She looked down at her hands, scared to meet either of their eyes.

“Miss Hart, you’ve always been a model student, so I don’t know where this could have come from. As much as you’ve denied it, I’m sorry to say that, because the text was sent from your phone, I’m inclined to believe it most likely came from you directly. For that reason, as well as the fight in the hallway, you will be doing a week of in school suspension as well as Saturday detention until further notice. You are also temporarily suspended from the cheerleading team, for _at least_ as long as your suspension.” He gestured to Ms. Price. “After that period, your coach will decide if and when you will be allowed back on the team. Believe me when I say I’m going easy on you, since this is your first offense, but I promise I will not be as kind if you end up in my office again. Do you understand?” Kimberly nodded, just wanting this to all be over. “Good. You’re free to go. Your suspension starts today. Ms. Price will take you to the classroom.”

***

The rest of that week Kimberly faced the school days alone, her in school suspension meaning that she spent the whole day, including lunch, locked in an empty classroom–a single teacher popping in and out throughout the day to make sure she wasn’t goofing off.  Her phone was taken as soon as she got there, and not returned until the final bell rang.  It didn’t really matter though.  No one had been trying to text her.  Amanda and Harper had also pointedly avoided the few messages she tried to send them.  Even after her week of enforced isolation was over, they still refused to talk to her.  They’d both glare when they saw her in the hallway, and found new and creative ways to fill her usual seat at their lunch table.  It was probably the worst couple of weeks of Kimberly’s life.  During her second Saturday detention, Kimberly walked down the hall in a daze, staring at her phone and pretending like she was texting someone–not that anyone actually cared.  She noticed Jason Scott wave at her as she passed, fresh from his own fall from grace after a prank gone wrong, though she didn’t bother to wave back.  Instead, she continued trying to look busy as she walked into the classroom, already dreading another day of having to sit in silence for several hours.  But still, she knew she deserved it.  Day after day of in school suspension, plus being ignored by her two closest friends, had helped her realize just how shitty of a person she really was.   

And so, when her phone lit up with an alert from Amanda to go to the ladies room just before detention started, Kimberly went right away, hoping that maybe this could all blow over and she would actually be able to have her friends back.  When she got there though, she was informed of exactly the opposite.  Amanda and Harper cut her out of the group, both literally and figuratively.  After they left, Kimberly pulled the scissors from the wall where Harper had stabbed them, letting the sliced up picture fall to the floor.  She stared at the scissors for a minute, her mind going to some pretty dark places as she opened them fully.  She looked at herself in the mirror, daring the image to reflect the monstrous person she felt she was.  But then suddenly, she was struck with an idea, one that was a bit less self-destructive and more… _symbolic_.  Hey, if Amanda and Harper could be symbolic about this, then so could she.  She grabbed a handful of her long, perfectly curled hair–kept that way to fit into high ponytails for cheerleading–and chopped.  She chopped until her hair was less than half the length it had been, throwing the cut off locks into the garbage bin.  She looked at her new bob in the mirror, pretty pleased with the result.  It was certainly more successful than her first attempt at a self–haircut.

She got a lot of approving looks and cheers when she walked back into detention, though leaving to go home was an entirely different story.  Her parents both freaked out when they saw her new look.  The picture thing had worried them enough, and this was the cherry on top.  Kimberly didn’t actually get in trouble for it, but it ended up being the last straw for her mom, who called a therapist as soon as they got home to make Kimberly an appointment.

_________________

That night was when everything went absolutely insane.  Kimberly had gone up to her usual spot on the mountain trails near the quarry, and jumped in for a swim, needing the chance to clear her head after everything that had happened.  Jason Scott’s sudden appearance was more than a little surprising, both because she’d never actually talked to anyone while she was up here before and because Jason was not among the usual faces she’d sometimes see around the quarry–Billy Cranston, Zack (at least she was pretty sure that’s what his name was), and some girl she vaguely recognized from class were the only kids she ever noticed hanging around.  

When Jason suggested running away, Kimberly was beyond ready.  Anywhere would be preferable to Angel Grove right now.  But any hastily made plans flew out the window as soon as Billy caused an explosion in the middle of the quarry.  Kimberly and Jason raced over and found both Billy and that kid Zack, who was freaking out at Billy about the explosion.  The girl from Kimberly’s class showed up on the cliff above them not too long after, yelling at them about mine security when suddenly the ground gave way and she fell, landing next to them in a heap (she was fine though, luckily).  Behind the crumbled rock was revealed to be some kind of dark glass material.  They were all drawn to it, noticing something glimmering inside.  Zack’s first reaction for some reason was to grab Billy’s pickaxe and basically tear whatever it was out of the wall.

The coins they found in that strange glass had an almost other-worldly glow to them and Kimberly could have stared at them all night if it weren’t for the alarms that started to sound.  She didn’t know why, but as they raced away, she followed the girl instead of Jason and Billy, thinking their best bet would be to get back to the trails in the woods and hide.  It didn’t look like they were going to get away in time when suddenly a minivan drove up alongside them, the door sliding open and Jason reaching out to pull them in.  Kimberly didn’t hesitate, jumping into the car as soon as she was close enough.  The other girl followed and Jason shut the door after her.  Zack, who had somehow made it onto the hill above them, jumped down and landed on the car, and Jason pulled him in as well.  Speeding down a road in a minivan trying to outrun security while a train approached sounded like something straight out of a Fast and Furious movie, but Kimberly didn’t really take the time to question it, just praying that they made it past the train.  They didn’t, because this wasn’t _actually_ a Fast and Furious movie.  The train hit the car full force, flipping it down the hill, and Kimberly was pretty sure she was about to die.

***

Kimberly scrambled awake Monday morning (having slept through the whole day Sunday) very much alive and very much confused about how that was possible.  She couldn’t even figure out how she managed to make it back home from the mines after the train accident and started to doubt that night had even happened.  Maybe it had all been some sort of weird fever dream or something?  It made enough sense.  Jason Scott was pretty central in it–and their lives were currently almost mirroring each other–and since it had taken place up near the quarry, it made sense that the other three had made an appearance.  The train crash must have been a metaphor or something.  Her theory was proven wrong though when she noticed the pink coin sitting innocently on her sink.  And crushing her phone with her bare hand definitely proved that something really _weird_ was going on.  As she got ready for school, she was distracted by trying to come up with an explanation for the broken phone and ended up tearing a hole right through one of her shirts.  She needed to find the other kids who were at the mine that night.  Maybe they had some idea of what was going on.

Kimberly found Billy and Jason at school pretty easily, and was somewhat reassured to find that they seemed equally confused about what was going on.  They all agreed to go back to the mines where they found the coins, the cafeteria counter explosion thing sealing the deal.  She kept her eyes pealed the rest of the day for the other two, but didn’t see either.  Weird.  She could have _sworn_ that girl was in one of her classes.  As Kimberly drove with Jason and Billy back up to the mines, they passed by a crew salvaging the wreck of the minivan, solid proof that that night hadn’t been some crazy dream–or even some freaky shared hallucination.  Zack was there when they got back to the mine, digging at the spot where they found the coins.  The other girl showed up too, and Kimberly felt a sense of relief that these two were apparently just as curious as the rest of them.  Which then quickly turned to surprise and vague annoyance when, instead of coming down to talk like Jason suggested, the girl turned and started scaling up the side of the mountain.  Zack took off in pursuit of her and Kimberly quickly made to follow, getting ready to jump down.  

“Okay, let me handle this,” She said as she backed up for a running leap.  Zack had said something about jumping over a house with his new ‘powers’, right?  She would be fine.  She heard Jason trying to stop her as she jumped, but she ignored him.  It was amazing.  She was a pretty decent jumper for a normal person thanks to years of gymnastics and cheerleading, but nothing like this.  She landed _way_ further than she should have, but didn’t take the time to stop and consider it, instead continuing her chasel.  She easily passed Zack up–she’d always been a pretty fast runner–and was quickly on the heels of the girl.  Kimberly yelled out to her when she noticed that she was _literally_ going to run off the edge of a cliff if she didn’t slow down.

“Stop!” The girl slid to a halt right at the edge.  She turned back towards Kimberly looking annoyed.  Kimberly wasn’t bothered by the look, just glad that she had actually stopped. “Just, just talk to me.” Kimberly said, out of breath.  The girl started to walk towards her.  That was a good sign. “You have a coin, we have a coin. We should just talk about this. I mean, we don’t know wh–” Before Kimberly could get another word out, the girl sprinted back towards the edge of the cliff, leaping across the ravine to the cliff edge on the other side.  How the hell did she know she was going to make that jump?  Did that girl have a death wish or something?

“What is wrong with you?” Kimberly muttered to herself as the other girl landed.  Zack made to jump after her, and for once in her life Kimberly was actually the reasonable one.  Sure the other girl had made it, but maybe she just got lucky?  Before anyone could stop him though, Zack was already in the air, tackling the girl to the ground as he landed.  Alright, well that was two for two.  Seemed safe enough, though Kimberly wasn’t sure she wanted to make the jump alone.  She turned to Jason, asking, “Come on, jump with me.”  

She got ready to jump as Jason tried to calm Billy down, telling him that they would jump first and he could follow after.  The other girl was sitting on the other side of the ravine with Zack, having seemingly forgotten about her initial plans to escape.  Kimberly tried to slow her racing heart as she ran to the edge of the cliff, and then suddenly she was soaring through the air, completely weightless as she all but flew to the other side.  Her legs kicked underneath her as if it would help propel her further.  The landing was a bit harsh, but her cheerleading training helped her catch herself pretty well.  Jason on the other hand ended up spitting blood after his face made contact with the ground.  It took a little bit of coaxing, but Billy managed to make it across too, just barely.  That is, until he fell backwards down into the gorge.  Kimberly’s heart sunk as they all rushed to the edge of the cliff where he had fallen, followed by a wave of sheer relief when they heard his voice calling them down to join him.  Zack and Jason jumped right down, Zack telling her to make sure to bring “that crazy girl” down with her.  

Kimberly would have jumped immediately with the other two, but something (not just Zack) told her to wait and make sure the other girl followed.  She was proven right when, rather than joining the rest of them, the girl just gave Kimberly a look and turned to leave.  Kimberly had to try and stall her, noticing the water bottle in her backpack and deciding that would probably work well enough.

“Hey! Can I get a sip of your water?” The girl turned, hesitating. “I’m dying.” It worked, and she walked slowly back towards Kimberly, pulling the bottle out from its pocket.  As she approached, Kimberly was suddenly struck with an absolutely brilliant idea.

“Okay, just don’t finish it,” the girl said, handing over the bottle.

“Thanks. And I’m really sorry.” She decided it best to apologize in advance for what she was about to do.  It was perfectly safe though (or at least she assumed it was).

“Sorry for what?” Kimberly didn’t answer, instead dropping the bottle and grabbing both of the girl’s shoulders, throwing all of her own weight to the side to drag the girl off the edge of the cliff.

________________

Everything that happened after that just seemed so surreal.  First the water at the bottom of the gorge led to some underground cave where they found a spaceship, and then an alien face in the wall and a talking robot were telling them that they were “Power Rangers”, and they had to protect something called the Zeo Crystal from some crazy woman named Rita?  It was a _lot_ for a Monday afternoon.  Still, they came back the next day.  The wall-face, Zordon, tried to get them to “morph” to get the armor that they were apparently supposed to have, but it didn’t work.  So they had to follow Alpha-5, the robot, down to the “Pit” for training.  It was brutal, but they apparently only had a limited amount of time before Rita was going to go after the Zeo Crystal, and they had to be ready.  Day after day, they came back to the Pit to fight “Putties” in preparation for the attack, leaving with so many new bruises and scratches that Kimberly started to lose count.

There was something about fighting rock monsters in a cave for several hours at a time, days in a row, that really brought people together.  And though they still didn’t really know each other, they could all feel a bond starting to form, and not just from the apparent connection through the morphing grid.  Kimberly and the other girl, Trini she’d learned her name was, had gotten pretty good at fighting together, and Kimberly started to gravitate towards her.  She found herself constantly wanting to spend more time with Trini, though she wasn’t quite sure why, always being disappointed when they’d separate for the day.  After training one day, they all started to split off, Jason and Billy heading off to Jason’s house to work on homework and Zack going the other direction towards his own place.  When Trini started to leave, Kimberly began scrambling for an excuse to hang out a bit longer.  She quickly settled on one that made the most sense and blurted it out before Trini could get too far.

“Hey, you wanna go to Krispy Kreme? Donuts are on me?” Trini seemed a bit startled by the question, furrowing her brows slightly. “I could uh, really use the sugar rush after that.”  Kimberly’s heart raced as she waited for a response.

“Um, yeah sure, that’d be cool.” Kimberly gave her a bright smile, reaching out to hook her arm through Trini’s as they walked together towards the town center.

_______________

Rita attacked Trini, and then they attacked Rita.  Billy died and then came back to life.  They finally morphed just as Rita started her attack on Angel Grove.  They fought–and almost all died–but they won!  They actually won, and Kimberly had never felt so relieved and overjoyed in her entire life.  After they managed to re-separate the Zords and return them to the hangar in the Pit, they all de-morphed and gave each other tight hugs.  They were still celebrating their victory when Billy’s phone went off, shocking them all out of their high at the same time as they realized they needed to go make sure their families were okay.  They gathered what little they had brought with them to the ship and launched back up to the cliff tops.  

The boys raced on ahead as Trini and Kimberly fell into stride at the back of the group.  Looking over at Trini, Kimberly couldn’t help but think how pretty she looked–even with her newly acquired battle scars–her hair still damp and slightly disheveled from the cave water.  The sun glinted off the golden highlights in her dark hair as she smiled at some dumb joke Kimberly made.  Kimberly’s breath caught in her throat.  She didn’t quite know what came over her, but she stopped in her tracks, grabbing Trini’s shoulder to stop her as well.  When Trini turned her head to ask what was up, eyebrows knit in confusion, Kimberly leaned in and kissed her.  The kiss was soft and gentle, only lasting a few seconds before Kimberly reluctantly pulled away. Trini’s eyes fluttered open and she looked completely dumbfounded.  It was in that moment that Kimberly realized that she hadn’t actually _asked_ if it was okay.  She immediately launched into an apology.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I just– you just looked so– and I just really–” Kimberly’s ramble was cut off by Trini’s lips on hers. When she pulled back again, Kimberly couldn’t help but smile softly, a smile that Trini quickly returned. “Do you wanna go out later and get ice cream or something?” she decided to ask, feeling suddenly bold, “I’d say we should go to Krispy Kreme, but I don’t really think that’s possible anymore.”

“Sure,” Trini laughed, “That sounds good.” She reached down and grabbed Kimberly’s hand, lacing their fingers together and continuing their walk down the mountain.

Kimberly was pretty sure her impulsiveness would eventually be her downfall, too many of her hastily made decisions already causing negative effects on her life.  Even so, as she walked down the mountain path hand in hand with Trini, she realized that not all of her impulsive decisions were necessarily bad.  Making so many decisions so spontaneously could be really risky (or at least that’s what her therapist told her), but Kimberly decided that some things were worth the risk.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @grammarkid for helping to prevent me from throwing this out and also for supporting the young karate Kim headcanon!
> 
> If you feel the need to yell at me or even just talk, you can find me on tumblr under the same username.


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